Kanahele defense witness testifies about police encounter

Defense witnesses in the federal trial of Dennis "Bumpy" Kanahele yesterday give accounts of events that differed substantially from the prosecution's version.

Kanahele, head of the self-proclaimed Nation of Hawaii, is charged with harboring a fugitive - convicted tax protester Nathan Brown - and interfering with two attempts to arrest Brown last year.

Kanahele supporter Duke Maikai testified yesterday about an encounter with police on Kamehameha Highway in Hauula the night of Jan. 27, 1994.

Prosecution witness Thomas Carreiro, a Honolulu police officer, had testified earlier that Kanahele earlier that Kanahele and more than 20 of his supporters thwarted his attempts to arrest Brown that night.

Carreiro said there were six of seven police there at the time and he decided not to force the issue.

Maikai said that at most, seven men, five women and about seven children from the Kanahele group were present when Carreiro pulled over the car in which Brown was riding. He and an earlier defense witness, Mike Hikalea, said eight or nine police officers were present.

Maikai said he told the officers they were committing "genocide," that the penalty could be death or a million dollar fine and that they would be held accountable.

That testimony sparked a series of sidebar debates out of the jury's hearing among the attorneys and Judge Helen Gillmor. The judge earlier had ruled she would not allow the trial to become a debate over Hawaiian sovereignty or Kanahele's claim that the state and federal governments are illegally occupying the Islands.

Maikai's testimony was allowed to stand, however.

Later yesterday, Maltbie Napoleon, the sovereignty group's attorney general, described a meeting in June between U.S. Marshal Anne Kent and Kanahele at the nation's village on state land in Waimanalo.

Kent asked Kanahele for help locating Brown and former state official Jack Gonzales, who was also a fugitive at the time, Napoleon said.

Kanahele told Kent, "We would if we could," but he didn't know where the men were, Napoleon said.

Kent told them, "If you're not going to help, we're going to have to take it to a higher level," Napoleon said.